According to new studies, there’s the possibility for heart disease to be induced by frequent exposure to traffic noise and other high-decibel sounds. These are the kinds of noise that we experience every day and the can range from a loud conversation or music to the sounds of planes taking off or cars honking in a traffic jam. Our cardiovascular health can be affected by these kinds of noise, according to a study that American College of Cardiology published.
In previous studies, several health-related issues were associated to the impact of environmental noise to the human health. Metabolic dysfunction and oxidative stress are some of these issues and they affect our bodies ability to get rid of toxins. It has been proved that noise is also capable of impacting our blood cells functions which might result in cardiovascular dysfunction and cause autonomic imbalance.
There also researchers from Denmark and Germany that decided to go even further these studies and focused on the impact of the noise in the autonomic nervous system, instead of just following the previous studies. They pointed out that there was no explanation on how the noise might cause heart disease; however, they claimed that, in fact, high decibel sounds can cause heart disease.
To understand the connection, the researchers analyzed the data of animals and people that had been exposed to frequent high decibel sounds in their environments. It took them several years to gather relative data and they were able to determine that the individuals exposed to high decibel sounds had higher heart failure rate.
These researchers took the results and explained that long term exposure to high decibel sounds frequently leads to a stress response than forces the sympathetic nervous system to react and starting producing and releasing hormones related to stress. Furthermore, it is commonly known that the increase in the amount of stress hormones in the system certainly damage the arteries of the hard with the pass of time as well as the rest of the body. There are other issues that this can cause such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and in some case high sugar blood levels, as well as making the heart rhythm irregular.
How to Diminish the Risk of Heart Disease Cause By Frequent Exposure to Loud Noises?
Doctor Thomas Munzel from the University Medical Mainz Center of Cardiology says that is quite important so acknowledge that there are a lot of factors that can lead to cardiovascular problems, and that one of the most common factors are obesity and cholesterol. In addition, when a person is already presenting high risk factors for cardiovascular disease, the exposure to high decibel sounds for long periods of time can increase the risk. He also says that this factor of risk is in constant grow since there are more and more people that are exposed to loud noises every day. It is important for governments around the world to realize about this issue and to regulate noise levels by supporting as well as enforcing the World’s Health Organization’s Noise Limits.